


The Gigan Transfer Student (A Skullgirls Anotherverse Story)

by ViktorJack73



Series: Skullgirls Anotherverse [1]
Category: Skullgirls (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Anime-like, Anotherverse, Gigan - Freeform, High-School, Multi, Original Character - Freeform, Rewritten Character, Skullgirls - Freeform, another universe, transfer student
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:06:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25837756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViktorJack73/pseuds/ViktorJack73
Summary: A Gigan becomes a transfer student in the prestigious New Meridian High School. As she meets new friends and partners, she will also meets new dangers in an unknown land. A part of a new Skullgirls AU series revolving around the Gigan, Scythana, rewritten into a new character.
Relationships: Leduc/Painwheel | Carol, Ms.Fortune/OC, Scythana/Cerebella
Series: Skullgirls Anotherverse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1874896
Kudos: 6





	1. A Transfer from Another Kingdom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new transfer student is about to enroll in the prestigious New Meridian High School in Canopy Kingdom.

"Are you ready for your first day?"

The driver's voice brought the girl away from her gaze of the city throughout the drive. "…maybe?" she replied. Inside the car, adorned with black leather seats, the driver was focused on the road, yet he remained focused still on carrying on the conversation with her.

"Your first day in high school" the driver asked, "I hope you can behave yourself while you're there."

The girl resumed to her gaze outside the car. She was here, in Canopolis, the capital city of the Canopy Kingdom. This was the first time that she was far away from home. Not even a day and she had already begun to miss the stone-cobbled cities and mud villages of her home nation. Here in the city, she could see towering skyscrapers and magnificent city complexes, adorned with lights and gigantic adverts for products and companies. This was far different than her home kingdom.

"You should get your bag ready" the driver said, "we're nearly there".

The girl nodded and looked at the bag beside her. It was given to her as a gift from the hosts of her arrival in the Canopy Kingdom. It was simple, a black bag made entirely out of leather. It was certainly stylish for sure.

Still, she couldn't help but think it should've been a white bag instead.

Inside was a notebook and stationeries. Her phone was in the bag too, also given to her by her hosts. A flagship, top of the line phone with a touchscreen and Internet support. The words "Valtech" was emblazoned on the top of the phone. The girl could only look at it with uncertainty. She surely wasn't used to such a device.

* * *

"We're here".

The car came to a stop at its destination. The girl looked outside the window to see the front gates of the school. Beyond it was the front area of the school, decorated with bushes and flowers. The main walkways are tiled and at the centre was a statue. It resembled a sword, a shield, and for some reason an umbrella. The umbrella itself was covering the sword and shield curiously. In front of the statue was the name of the high school she will be attending.

"New Meridian High"

The car's engine died down; the driver stepped out of the vehicle. The girl soon followed, opening the car door and stepping out with her bag slung over her shoulders. She was wearing the official uniform of the school, a short sleeved collared white uniform with a long, black tie, black mini skirt, and leggings that reached to her thighs. The driver stood beside her.

"Ah, I was going to open the door for you" he said. The girl looked at her and smiled.

"Nah, it's okay. I can handle things myself".

"Ah hello there!" a rough voice called out to them from the guard house at the school gate.

A security guard, wearing a navy-blue guard uniform and hat, greeted them. "I assume you're the new transfer student?" he asked.

The driver approached him, shaking hands with the guard. "Indeed she is. What's your name?" the driver asked. "Michael Douglas. Call me Mike".

The girl was indeed impressed with her driver's hospitality, nevertheless the bizarre outfit he was wearing that might scare a regular citizen. An olive-green trench coat, black gloves, black army boots and most especially the gas mask. He was even wearing a wide-brimmed fedora. She assumed it was to cover his identity, never mind anyone could knew he was from the government.

"Tell me, where is her class?" the driver said, handing out a piece of paper to Mike. He took a look at the paper closely, the words "B-3" was written on it.

"Ah this class" Mike replied, "It's on the second floor, second room from the right. Ya can't miss it".

The driver looked to her and cocked his head to his right, gesturing to follow him.

* * *

"…on the subject of the peace treaty between kingdoms, King Renoir managed to unite the other two kingdoms under his banner; Steinitz, the Chess Kingdom, and Gaia, the Gigan Kingdom."

The class of B-3 had been in History class since the past hour. Clearly it wasn't something they were interested in or excited to hear about; half the class has already dozed off or their minds set on something else rather than focusing on the lesson. Only the students sitting at the front were paying any attention.

Filia wrote down the lesson on the front in her notebook. Carol, who sat beside her, did the same. Leduc only looked towards the teacher, Ms. Victoria, and listening to her to pay attention. Behind him, Cerebella was listening to the lesson, yet her bored expression while resting her face on her hands on the desk says otherwise. She was getting tired of learning about History. There was only an empty seat beside her. The last student who sat there got suspended for some reason. Way out in the back row of the class, Nadia was already sleeping, head on desk, with her classmate Rei beside her blatantly leaning back on his chair with his head back, sleeping.

Of course, Ms. Victoria wasn't going to let this slide.

She grabbed a piece of chalk from the whiteboard, aimed towards Rei's direction, and with a flick of her finger launched it right towards his forehead. The entire class, sleeping or otherwise, jolted to the sound of Rei screaming in pain as the chalk flung at his forehead with force. His mate Nadia, turning her head to him while still lying on the desk, only had this to say:

"Next time, don't make yourself too obvious, doofus" she said. Rei rubbed off the pain on his forehead.

"Yeah sure" he could only say as he begrudgingly looked back at the chalkboard and Ms. Victoria, who had a smug look. "Now as I was saying—"

Suddenly, there came a knock at the door.

Ms. Victoria turned her gaze towards the door. "Ah, I see our new transfer student has arrived" she said. Everyone began talking to each other in whispers, interested in this new transfer student.

"Who is it? A boy, a girl?"

"Are they from another country?"

"Is he handsome?"

As the questions kept pouring in, Cerebella remained uninterested. She merely wanted this day to be over and head back home. The class' sliding door opened and the new transfer student walked into class…

Everyone gazed at the new transfer student. It was a girl. She was tall, taller than even Ms. Victoria herself in fact as she stood besides her. Her hair was combed back while the ends of it were tied in a pigtail. She had a bigger body type, fit but toned as her arms displayed her toned muscles. But most importantly…

She had one horn on the right side of her head.

Again, everyone began whispering to each other. A Gigan, in the same class as them. To them it was unthinkable, Gigans should not even be able to fit into the halls of the school, yet here she is standing perfectly in their class, maybe with her horns reaching the ceiling.

"Everyone" Ms. Victoria said to the class, bringing their attention to her and the transfer student. "This our newest transfer student from Gaia, the Gigan Kingdom". Everyone looked at the Gigan transfer student, equally curious and equally afraid.

"Can you please introduce yourself?"

The girl bowed to the class before straightening herself again.

"Hello everyone!" she said. Her voice is certainly normal, expected of a girl her age, yet it had a tinge of aggressiveness to it. "My name is Scythana, daughter of Varlok. I come from Gaia. I hope I can be good friends with all of you!" She delivered her introduction with a smile.

* * *

"Gigans are feared throughout the Canopy Kingdom" the driver said. "You must ensure that you display hospitality and non-aggressiveness unless otherwise".

Scythana nodded in agreement. She understood the tumultuous past between her race and humans, especially those of the Canopy Kingdom. The last thing both kingdoms need is the spark of hatred between both sides. "With my current form now, I can blend with them nicely" Scythana replied.

She was getting used to turning her body into the size of regular human. Still she was taller than the average human, and there is also the question of her horn. Being half-human has its benefits and some downsides.

"Make sure to make friends with the students here" the driver said. "It will help with improving the image of the Gigan race as a whole".

Scythana understood the importance as an emissary, to make peaceful relation with human society. She understood that a good place to start would be at a younger generational level, students. It was something that she and her father had agreed on before she left her kingdom.

"Don't worry. I understand that. But what if I encounter…hostility?" she said.

"Meaning?"

"Encountering people that would harm me…or the friends I would make without giving me a chance for negotiation?"

"Then we can sweep it under the rug. Just try not to actually kill anyone. Understand?"

Scythana nodded. "Understood".

* * *

Author's Notes:

Hi everyone! This is a new fanfiction I'm currently making based on Skullgirls. I'm planning on making a sort of series for this story, but it's still in the works. Leave a comment and tell me what you think about the story so far!


	2. New Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scythana begins to make friends with her new classmates while also wondering about her classmate's Cerebella's isolation from the others. Meanwhile, she gets challenged by the school's gym teacher into a wrestling match.

Ms. Victoria gestured to Scythana. "Now then, you can take a seat…" her eyes searched the room for an empty seat, setting on the empty one besides Cerebella, "besides Cerebella there".

Scythana walked over to the empty seat besides Cerebella. As she sat down, it was clear that she became the tallest person in class. She opened her bag to pull out a notebook and pen. Cerebella, who was until now bored and uninterested in the happenings around her, snuck a gaze at the new transfer besides her.

She was, at the very least, became interested…

The way she looked from her view, emerald-green eyes, the smile on her lips as she began to focus on the lesson. Her well-toned arms. Something about Scythana struck something within her.

Yet, it's still unproven, she scoffed. Even if she is a Gigan, she is merely just new sheep in this school she thought.

Ms. Victoria continued the lesson. "As we all know, before the signing of the peace treaty, the Great War brought about casualties from both sides. The war which mainly took place at No Man's Land between the borders of our kingdom and Gaia was at a stalemate and day by day both sides were losing their men, even with the advent of the Anti-Gigan Armors by the Canopian Military…"

Scythana began to ponder as she wrote down notes. Her father was a soldier in that war. She remembered her father's many commemorations to his name for his contributions to his war, and yet she knew how much he hated being in the war. He told her how despite his many medals and titles, the war brought him nothing but sorrow. Now her father is the leader of the Gaia Kingdom's War Ministry, something that he is ashamed of. Still, he is an advocate for peace and is against any violence against non-Gigans alike. She'd never thought that her first lesson would hit a bit close to home. As the lesson went on, she took some time to look around at her new classmates. There are humans, that's for sure. But there are also…other types of people.

Students with fins and gills like a fish?

Students with cat's ears and tails?

Guess humans aren't the only ones living in this kingdom.

The bell rang from down the hall, it was time for lunch break. As the other students in class hurriedly walk out of the classroom, Filia walks over to Scythana's desk as she was putting away her notebook.

"Wanna eat lunch with me?" said Filia, Carol accompanying beside her.

"Yeah sure" she replied.

"I think I should introduce myself. My name is Filia, and this girl here is Carol. Hope you don't mind her face marks."

Scythana looked at the girl beside Filia, Carol. It's not hard to see why. Carol had a large stitch mark on her face, covering the entire length of it in an "X".

"Oh, I hope I'm not scaring you" she said, meekly covering her face. Scythana lets out a laugh. "It's okay Carol. You're still fine" she said.

* * *

The cafeteria was large and wide. Scythana could only stare in amazement as she first stepped foot inside the cafeteria. After buying food (she had a chocolate cupcake with cold tea), she sat at a table with Filia and Carol.

"So Scythana" Filia began to ask a question, "How is life here in the Canopy Kingdom?".

Scythana paused for a while before she could eat her cupcake. She remembered how bustling and modern the city was when she arrived here in the kingdom. "The city is nice" she could only say. "Though I haven't settled here enough yet to fully enjoy living here".

"It's okay. Hey, if you want you can hang out with us sometime when you're free"

"Really? When do you usually hang out?"

"In the weekends or so? Wanna come?"

Before Scythana could answer the question, she noticed two people coming over to their table. One was a girl with cat ears, silver hair, and a sly grin on her, the other was a boy, silver hair and red eyes. He could just totally be a copy and paste of the girl.

"Hi guys!" the girl shouted out. She really seemed to be the life of the party. The others greeted her as they both sat down next to Scythana.

"Say, you're that new Gigan student huh?" she said, her fist bumping Scythana's shoulder. She nodded.

"Alright! Name's Nadia, but ya can call me Fortune!" she said, before pointing at the boy beside her. "And this rough and tumble looking guy here is Rei. Say hi Rei!"

The boy, Rei, looked at Scythana. She could feel the piercing look his red eyes gave to her. But all that died down when he gave a quick "Hey" to her. He seemed to be a good guy, she thought.

As they continue, Scythana noticed the table besides her. There, the girl who sat beside her, Cerebella, was sitting alone at the table, eating a plate of bacon and eggs. Suddenly, she felt someone pulling her head back. It was Nadia, and she got close to her ear to whisper something.

"That's Cerebella" Nadia whispered. "She's bad news".

"How bad?"

"Dunno, but she's got some…connections that make people not wanna be with her".

As much as she was told about her, she can't help but take a quick glance at Cerebella. She was sitting alone, no one beside her, while she was sitting with her new-found friends. She couldn't help but think why a girl like her would be sitting without friends. No use thinking about now, she thought. Class is about to start soon, and she has to finish her lunch with her classmates quick.

* * *

"GET ON YOUR FEET LADIES AND START RUNNING"

Class B-3 were at the gym in time for Physical Education class. After a change of clothes in the changing room (in which Scythana had to pick the extra large shirt for her own size), they then had to endure 3 rounds of running in the gym, supervised by their PE teacher, Mr. Hartman.

He was muscular in comparison to the regular school staff and teachers, coming from his days as a sergeant in the military, and he saw it fit to continue teaching and screaming at trainees, this time as a PE teacher in the local high school. The man would not settle down for retirement even if his own government tells him to.

Finally, after 3 rounds of running, Mr. Hartman called the students over to brief on what they'll do today.

"Alright ladies, listen up!" he shouted, as indoors pose no limits to his volume.

"Today is a very special day, as I've heard there is a new transfer student in class." He directed his gaze towards the tallest in the group, Scythana. "And it just so turns out that this new transfer student is a GIGAN!" Hartman screamed. There was a peculiarly aggressive tone to his voice as he shouted.

Scythana was worried, is he…judgmental about there being a Gigan amongst them? "Because of that, all I know is that for today…"

Everyone was waiting in fear for today's activity. He had them crawl under dirt before, climbing the rock-climbing wall, even had them do 100 push ups without stops like army soldiers, they were unsure of what crazy nutjob antics were they going to do today. Scythana only worried about if he might do something that could insult her own race.

"WE'LL HAVE A WRESTLING CLASS!"

Everyone was stunned. This was certainly new, a wrestling match for PE class? It's not even sure if that's in the official syllabus.

Scythana could only shrug.

"Wrestling?" she thought, "This is starting to feel like home already".

"Some of you might not know this" Hartman shouted out to the class, "but Gigans have made it their top priority to teach each and every person of their lifeblood the basics of wrestling! Therefore, as an inspiration from our newest transfer student, I would like HER to show you ladies the basics of Gigan wrestling!"

She was surprised.

"U..Uhh, me sir?" Scythana shouted from the back.

"Yes, you!" Hartman said. "You will teach this class how Gigans do their wrestling! Gather around everyone!"

At his command, everyone made a circle around the centre of the gym, where there was a mat already conveniently prepared. In the middle, there was only Mr. Hartman and Scythana.

"Now kid" he shouted, his arms changing from crossed to being extended out to his sides above his head, "try to pin me!"

Scythana looked at him with uncertainty, yet there was a certain feeling that arose in her. A feeling of anticipation, awaiting a certain thrill.

The thrill of the fight.

Her pose changed from straight to staggered as she set her right foot forward and left foot backward. Her arms were positioned lower than her chest. She looked forward and stared directly at Mr. Hartman in the eye, even through the sunglasses he was wearing. Despite his old age and admittedly rounder physique, his muscles were gleaming and toned as he stood there, smiling ear to ear baring his teeth.

She could only do the same. Her eyes narrowed, and she gave a smile that exudes excitement and anticipation. Everyone was surprised at her sudden change from meek to adrenaline-seeker in a split second. Cerebella, who watched from the back, looks on in anticipation. What power does she really have?

"Come on old man" Scythana shouted out, aggressive and rough in her tone of voice, "bring it on!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A fight scene is coming up. I may screw up the actual techniques and terminology for wresling but let's see.


	3. Wrestling Time!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scythana fights her gym teacher in an impromptu wrestling match. Meanwhile, trouble is brewing and an abduction will soon be played...

"WAIT HOLD UP!" Mr. Hartman shouted. Scythana stared at him in bewilderment, still in her fighting stance. "WE NEED AN ANNOUNCER DAMNIT!"

Nadia pushed her way from the back to the front, looking to make herself be known.

"I CAN BE THE ANNOUNCER TEACH!" Nadia shouted.

"EXCELLENT!" Mr. Hartman screamed as he gave her a thumbs up

* * *

"IN THIS CORNER, WE HAVE THE OLD VETERAN, THE FIGHTER FROM THE CAMOUFLAGE, FORMER SERGEANT OF THE CANOPY KINGDOM MILITARY, MR. HARTMAN!"

"AND IN THIS CORNER, WE HAVE THE NEW GIGAN DARLING, THE FEMALE TRANSFER STUDENT FROM THE WEST, TALLEST AND BIGGEST OF THE CLASS, SCYTHANA!"

* * *

Both fighters began to take their fighting stance from earlier. Most importantly, there are taking lower stances. Scythana remembered that it is to ensure that fighters create a lower centre of gravity and avoid themselves from being easily thrown off balance and be susceptible to a pin. Judging from the looks of Mr. Hartman, he is certainly a seasoned veteran of the sport of wrestling.

So is she.

"FIGHTERS GET READY!" Nadia screamed as she held a musical triangle she brought out from the gym storeroom.

Feet scraping the mat, eyes narrowed on each other, it was time…

* * *

"FIGHT!"

*DINGDINGDING!*

Both fighters charged at each other. Hartman took the first step and aimed at grabbing her leg. Swiftly, Scythana blocked his hands with her own and grabbed him by the throat. She quickly lifted him up before he could grab at her legs and shook him around like a ragdoll. However, just before she could deliver a chokeslam to the floor, Hartman swung forward and locked his legs in between Scythana's throat. He sent out a quick palm strike to the throat to release her grip on him, and at a moment's notice, he had her head between her thighs, ready to flip her over. Everyone stared in awe, their gym teacher had the Gigan, known for their brute strength and power, on the ropes. However, Scythana had anticipated this action.

With nothing else but sheer brute determination, she overtook his strength to flip her over by jumping up first and head-bang onto the floor, intending to do a powerbomb on Hartman. The force was enough to throw Hartman off of her, yet he was already back on his feet and maintaining his distance between him and the female Gigan.

"Pretty damn good kid" he said, smiling while baring his teeth.

"Likewise. Mr. Hartman. Impressive for a human to fight a Gigan at their natural strength!" Scythana growled. She too was giving a smug smile.

"Well, fighting a Gigan means giving it your all. No holding back!"

Immediately he charged forward, catching even Scythana by surprise. He reared back to throw a punch at her. She held up her arms to her face to block, but it was a ruse. Hartman was faking the punch. Before she could react, Hartman quickly ran over to her back and held onto her waist. He was trying to perform a suplex on her. Scythana quickly planted her feet on the ground and lowered her body, just to ensure that Hartman couldn't lift her quick enough and give her time to react. But his strength says otherwise, as he quickly lifts her up, flips her over to his back and slams her to the ground. He released her from his grip and lets her lie down on the mat with her face on the ground. She was dazed, stunned from the blow of the suplex.

Hartman wastes no time and quickly goes for the pin. He hurried over to her and pushes her to make her lie on her back. Then he lifts one of her legs to put her shoulders on the ground for a pin.

"REF, HURRY UP!" Hartman shouted at Nadia. Nadia begins counting to 3.

"ONE…"

"TWO…"

However, just before she could finish counting, Scythana regained her consciousness to see Hartman just facing her while doing the pin. She quickly headbutts Mr. Hartman, catching him by surprise before he could retaliate. The blow instantly broke his best pair of sunglasses, but most importantly it pushed him back enough for her to get back on her feet.

"Hahahahaha! Amazing!" Scythana growled. "But now it's my turn!".

This elicited a similar laugh from Hartman. "HAHAHA! GIVE ME YOUR BEST SHOT KID!" he screamed.

Hartman rushed forward and flew punches at the Gigan, but she managed to dodge them in time. He flungs his head back and sends it forward to do a flying headbutt, but it missed her as she stepped sideways. The move was punished as immediately Scythana locks his head around her arms, putting him in a headlock. She swung her left leg back to build momentum and swings it forward, using the momentum to push herself and Hartman down onto the mat, a DDT. Everyone gasped in awe. Was it over?

Hartman was not finished.

Before Scythana could get on him to pin, he gets back up and launches his head towards her stomach, knocking her back. Immediately he goes up to her, grabs both of her arms and crosses them together before delivering another suplex. He jumped up in the air to deliver an elbow slam to knock her out for an easy finish, but Scythana rolled out of the way. Both of her and Hartman were winded and dazed, but this is the final moment. Any move made by the fighters could beat the other determine the winner of the match.

Hartman lunged forward to deliver a punch. However, he did not account for Scythana's lower stance on the floor. She dashed forward, his fist entirely whiffing above her and delivered her own punch to his stomach. Hartman was choking, struggling for air. That last punch knocked the entire wind out of him. As he reeled back to recover from her last attack, Scythana made her move.

She immediately went for his head and put it in an inverted headlock position, his head just above her shoulder. She then delivers the final blow; with Hartman's head still in a headlock above her shoulder, she jumps up and lands down on the mat seated, slamming Hartman's jaw right on her shoulder with such brute strength. A stunner!

The impact from the blow sent even Hartman flying back as she released him from her grip. The manic cheering of the class from earlier became silent. Scythana maintained her stance for a moment, catching her breath. She looked behind her to see Hartman had lied down on the floor. She takes her chance, sliding over to him and delivering the pin. Nadia resumes her duty as referee.

"ONE…" Everyone stared at the two in awe and amazement.

"TWO…" Hartman still lied down, unmoving.

"THREE! WE HAVE A WINNER!"

* * *

Everyone cheered as the final countdown was settled. Scythana was the winner of the "match". She raised both of her hands in triumph.

"Agh, you're damn good kid. Never had a fight like that in AGES."

Hartman rose from behind her. Scythana seemed to snap out of her fighting trance, as she quickly rushed over to Hartman's side to check on him.

"Are you OK, sir?!" she said, panicking. She was worried she might've broken his bones.

"HAHAHA! These old bones will never break!" he said proudly, a prideful and rightly smug statement of his strength.

"WELL CLASS?" he began shouting again. "SEE HOW OUR FRIEND HERE DISPLAYED HER WRESTLING?"

Everyone immediately focused on Mr. Hartman.

"That concludes our class session for today. I want you all to understand and learn what has happened today. Next week I want to see another live match exercise, this time among all of you!" he shouted.

"AM I CLEAR?!"

"SIR YES SIR!" the entire class replied back, like soldiers in the army.

"Good, then you are dismissed!"

* * *

"That was an awesome fight!"

Everyone was gathered around Scythana. The teacher for that class was absent for the day. In a span of an entire day she had already proven popular with her class. "What's your training regimen?" one student with fins and gills asked. "Well I-" Before she could answer them, more and more questions poured from her curious classmates.

"Are all Gigans bigger than you?"

"What do you eat most of the time"

"What's your skincare routine"

"Scythana!" Suddenly a shout from the back of the gaggle of her classmates. It was Cerebella, who was sitting at her table the entire time.

"Yes?" Scythana asked.

Everyone stared at her. She is usually the one who demeans other people, mainly the smug girl who'll never accept anyone else in the class. They were prepared to chew her out if she's going to do something like that.

"…that fight earlier was amazing. Maybe we could…talk with each other sometime?" That was her only answer. She then resumed to looking at her phone.

"Uhh yeah, well…" Suddenly, the school bell rang. The school session for today has ended.

It was time to go home.

"Well, take care Scythana. I'll be seeing you sometime" Cerebella said. Just as she left with her bag, she turned towards Scythana and gives a sly little wink.

Suddenly, Scythana felt something warm around her cheeks. Her cheeks were flushed with red. Blushing.

"It's probably nothing…" she thought to herself. She quickly composed herself, carrying her bag as she waved goodbye at her friends before walking out of class B-3.

Today was certainly an interesting first day for the Gigan.

* * *

"You see her yet Snipes?"

The fat, rotund man was smoking a cigarette as he asked his friend, an eel Dagonian. "School must be done for today".

"Calm down, Slim" Snipes the Dagonian replied back, his eyes in his binoculars scanning the front of the school.

"There's a lot of these kids walking around. We still gotta flow the plan".

"Nab her right in front of the gate, yeah?" Slim the fat man said.

"Right. It's a good thing we got the limo too to make things easier".

In the backseat, a man dressed nicely in a checkered suit was gagged and tied up. The original limo driver.

By the dashboard was a photograph of the girl they were looking for. She was dark skinned, green hair, and she also has green eye shadow to complement her hair.

Students began walking out of the doors of the school, ready to go home. Snipes began scanning each one of them for the girl. Finally, his binoculars managed to pick a girl with green hair and eye shadow.

"Gotcha…" his teeth bared, he smiles ear to ear


	4. In Broad Daylight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the school session ended, Cerebella becomes the victim of a kidnapping

As the students all make their way outside of the school, Scythana walked with Filia and Carol.

"What do you think of your first day here? Fun, right?" Filia said to Scythana.

"Hahaha, yeah! It certainly is an interesting place" she replied. At the very least, she didn't expect that she would have to fight someone on her first day.

Filia adjusted her hat.

"Say, what did Fortune say about him being an old veteran of the war?" Scythana asked, out of a need to continue the conversation.

Carol replied, "Mr. Hartman? Yeah, he was from the army 10 years ago. He fought Gigans during the war".

So that's why, Scythana thought. Mere men would not just take on a Gigan head on. Hartman was not one of them. Still, she should have thought to have a talk with Mr. Hartman sometime. Ask about what the war was like.

Ask if he had met her father on the battlefield of No Man's Land.

"A good thing it's near the end of the week, huh?" Filia chimed in. They were nearly close to the front door of the school lobby.

"We can hang out right in the weekend!"

"That's great!" said Scythana, "

Though by the way, where do you guys live?"

"Well, me and Carol both live in Maplecrest" Filia said, "It's a suburb not far from here, about 15 minutes by bus".

Carol chimed in, "We can take you to all the best places in New Meridian! There's the shopping mall, the cafes, shops, casinos…"

"Carol, we're not supposed to go to casinos silly!"

"Oh, sorry…I thought Scythana would need to know"

Scythana laughed. "It's fine! These sounds like great places to go to".

They exit the lobby and out into the front area of the school compound, near the main gate.

However, at the gate, they saw something quite troubling. A black limousine was parked near the gate, and at the limo a man is struggling to pull a girl forcefully into the vehicle.

Scythana thought she recognized the girl. "Is that…Cerebella?!"

* * *

As Cerebella walked down the hallway, she began thinking to herself again, like always.

She knew her regular best friends were not in class today, because they were "injured" while "performing" for the Cirque des Cartes last night. She knew that she would be alone for today. She could never trust anybody else besides her partners in the circus since they knew who she was.

Born and raised in the Medici Mafia, a mafia princess. The mob could never let her have relations with anyone else besides them. Her friends and partners in the circus are part of the mob as well.

However, today was a different kind of day. She was alone again, but today someone new came into her life.

A Gigan, supposedly giants of inhuman nature. The mob regarded as merely dumb muscle forced to work the docks. But today's new transfer student from Gaia proved otherwise. To Cerebella, she was stunning from the outside. She was not like the other girls, always being soft and subservient to the situation. She was brave, willing to drop the act of meek and softness to take aggressiveness according to the situation. And her natural strength and power from being a Gigan.

Is she the kind of girl for her?

As she continued to ponder about the transfer student, she had exited the lobby and heading towards the main gate. As usual, her limousine has already arrived earlier.

"Hey Bella! Going back already?" Mike greeted her as she passed by the gate.

"Hey Mike" she said. Unbeknownst to her, she was blushing and smiling the entire time.

"Well, got butterflies in your head today, missy?" Mike noted with a smile. Cerebella's cheeks became even redder. Thinking about Scythana today just made something rise up in her.

"No it's nothing Mike!" Cerebella shouted at him. She was kind of angry, but she couldn't help but smile and laugh as well at the absurdity of it. She opened the limousine doors.

As she slid into the seat, she felt that something was…off.

A strong, thick smell of tobacco in the air. Her regular driver was never a smoker, not even being allowed to smoke in any of the escort vehicles. She also smelled something…pungent. Like sewage water. She would usually smell the sweet aroma of the air freshener in the limousine. Then she turned right…

Her driver was beside her, bound in ropes and gagged with his mouth taped shut. He was struggling and rolling around in place, gesturing the young lady to get out of the car immediately.

Her "drivers" were a fat man in a shabby suit, and an eel in a leather jacket behind the wheel.

"Afternoon, missssssy!" the eel called out to her, hissing in excitement.

Cerebella quickly opened the door to get outside, but the fat man grabbed at her arm to pull her back in.

"MIKE, HEEEELP!" she shouted to the security guard.

Mike looked up from his chair to see where the screaming came from, only to see Cerebella in a struggle to getting pulled back into the limo.

"HEY, STOP NOW THIS INSTANT!" he yelled, pulling out his standard-issue baton. The commotion brought the attention of the other students, some of them approaching the limousine to help.

Mike approached the driver's window and knocked his baton against the door, also trying to open the door to find it locked. Finally, the driver pulled down the driver's window.

"Greetingsss officer!"

A pistol, aimed right at his face.

Mike quickly reeled himself to the left, but the Dagonian managed to pull the trigger, sending a bullet straight into his right shoulder. He screamed in pain, lying on the ground as he clutched the wound.

"Any one of you make a move and I'll shoot ya!" Snipes yelled out to the other students who were near the gate. They were too frightened to approach, lest they get injured like Mike, or worse.

"Slim, what are ya doin?! Get her in here now!"

"I'm trying Snipes!" Slim shouted. Cerebella was stubborn, she wouldn't let herself be caught, much less by two lowlife scum like them.

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE! RELEASE THE GIRL!" A deep voice shouted from behind the limousine. Snipes turned around to see a man in a trench coat and gas mask, pointing a revolver at them.

"STOP OR I'LL SHOOT!"

"MAKE ME!" Snipes yelled. He fired a shot at the trench coat man, scaring the other students and staff in the vicinity.

But the bullet missed, merely grazing the shoulder of the trench coat. The man fired two shots; one pierced through the rear window and hit Slim in the arm, one hit the trunk of the limousine.

Slim yelled in pain as he clutched his arm, letting go of Cerebella, but before she could escape, Snipes grabbed her from the front before swiftly delivering the butt of his pistol to her head. She was instantly knocked out.

"Not so tough now, eh!" Snipes shouted. "We're outta here!".

Pedal to the metal and with the sound of burning rubber, the limo drove off with their hostage in tow. The trench coat man cursed to himself, he didn't expect them to be crafty in kidnapping a girl. Before long, Scythana approached him.

"That was my classmate! They took her!" she said to her driver. Clearly, she too was shocked by what happened in front of her.

The driver turned his gaze towards her, "I was supposed to send you back home, but we have other problems now".

A kidnapping, in broad daylight. This was the first time Scythana saw something like it happening right in front of her. She was too far away to stop it, she should have stopped the kidnapping from happening, she thought.

Her strength should have helped save Cerebella, but she was too shocked from the events that happened.

"Come on. We have to follow them" the driver said to her. "We can still catch up".

As the driver walked to the driver's door of the car, Filia and Carol walked up to him. "Please, take us with you! We can help!" Filia said, Carol chiming in,

"She's our friend too!" The driver could only scoff at them, "You're just a bunch of kids. This is too dangerous for regular students like you. Go home".

"She's my friend too" Scythana interrupted him. The driver turned to her.

"Are you sure Scythana? They might get hurt-" Filia interrupted him as well,

"Don't worry, we have experience" she said, flicking the tip of her hat.

The driver paused for a moment. He knew it's dangerous for a bunch of students who are not Gigan to join in saving their classmate. But…

"Alright ladies, hop in" the driver finally relented. "Scythana, you sit at the front".

* * *

Tires screeching and rubber burning on the asphalt. The driver sped through the hectic afternoon traffic in New Meridian with proficiency. Scythana, Filia and Carol were holding on to the handlebars to keep their balance.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Scythana said to the driver.

"I'm sure" He taps on his phone attached to the dashboard, showing a GPS. There's a red pulsing dot on the map. "Good thing I bugged the limo"

The second shot he fired on to the trunk was a tracking beacon. It easily lets him know where the limo is currently at.

"Hey driver, sorry if I called you that" Scythana said, "but what's your name?"

The driver was silent for a moment.

"Classified" he finally replied, much to Scythana's disappointment, "but you can call me "Mr. A", got it?".

She nodded in agreement.

The GPS finally showed the red dot stopping at a location. "Ah, the usual. So predictable" Mr. A said, with a tinge of humour in his voice even.

"Why, were did they stop?" Scythana asked.

"The most northern part of town, the harbor. Must be hiding out in a warehouse".

Scythana began to ponder for a moment. "Why would they kidnap my friend in front of school in broad daylight?" she asked.

"Who knows?" Mr. A replied. "She might probably be someone important to be kidnapped for ransom. Call it a hunch".

Scythana returned to being quiet for the whole ride. Today she was already going to see the uglier side of this kingdom. She remembered Fortune telling her how Cerebella had "connections". Connections to what, she thought.

Important enough connections for her to be kidnapped?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are about to get heated up soon enough.


	5. Girl for Ransom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cerebella is taken to the hideout of a gang who wants to use her as hostage for a ransom against her family.

Dizzyness, confusion, a blurred sense of view. Slowly Cerebella awoke from her momentary slumber to the waking world, only to find her view obscured and hearing muffled by cloth, a sack over her head. She could not see where she was.

The last thing she remembered was trying to escape from her kidnappers, and a sharp pain to her head as they knocked her out cold.

A sense of fright and fear came over her. She was in a place unknown to her. Slowly her other senses began adjusting themselves to the alien environment around her. The musty smell of rusted iron and tobacco, her currently seated position on a chair, a tight grip on her whole body as if something is restricting her, and of course the voices of her captors.

"Slim was being a dumbass. Couldn't even pull in a girl. Now look at what happened!"

"Sorry boss. I could explain, the girl was tough! Felt like wrangling a damn bull there-"

"ENOUGH!" a deep, booming voice silenced the other two voices. "We have to record the video now, get the message that their little princess has been taken and need a toll of cash to get her back."

The ringleader, the one who orchestrated her kidnapping.

Cerebella heard footsteps and voices all around her. Tough, gangster-drawl voices. Guns being cocked and loaded. This was an entire gang, and from the voice of the ringleader, she just became a hostage of ransom.

"Hey boss look, she's waking up!" that familiar pitch, higher tone of voice. That Dagonian who knocked her out.

She could hear footsteps, louder and louder as they closed in on her, and suddenly the sack covering her head was pulled off of her. Her eyes met the sights of blinding spotlights projecting onto her, and the puff of air from the breath of the big reptilian in front of her. Their boss, a crocodile with a shorter snout, but a bigger and harder body beneath his brown jacket and black jeans.

"Wakey wakey, sweetheart" he growled, accentuated by his deep and growling voice.

Cerebella began moving he body around, but it was no use. Her body and legs were bound to the steel chair by iron chains, kept under lock and key. "What is the meaning of this?!" Cerebella shouted at him. She never expected that she would become the lady in distress of the day.

"Let me go!" she shouted again, staring directly at the crocodile gang leader.

He only lifted his right upper lip to show his set of fangs. A crocodile's way of showing a grin, then he laughs. Cerebella could smell the stench of tobacco from his laugh alone.

"Really? You haven't caught on to this gig we're doing?" he said. "Your Medici friends are gonna have to pay your bail!"

Her heart raced as she realized what predicament she's in. A hostage, and the Medici family has to pay ransom to free her.

"Pay you freaks? They're not gonna pay you anything!" she scoffed, challenging the gang leader. "If they know what you're doing, they'll rather pump lead into you freaks than give you cash!"

He was not impressed. He walked towards her and bends down to her level, hands on her face.

"If they try to even come closer without pay…" his claws touched her cheeks, before suddenly sliding them down on her hard and quick, leaving a gash. "This is the least I could do…" he growled, accentuating with a smile, showing his entire set of teeth.

Cerebella winced in pain from the gash, but she knew the Medici would never bow to their demands. "Get the camera rolling!" he shouted out to a gang member behind him.

Cerebella looked ahead of her to see a digital video camera mounted on a tripod. They were going to record the ransom footage to send to the Medicis. She began to fear the implication of what might happen, that they would have to pay money to these lowlife gangsters as she considered them just to gain her freedom.

Or keep her anyways for their own enjoyment.

She saw the two gangsters who kidnapped her, the eel and the fat man, the latter having a bandage over the wound where the man in the trench coat shot earlier.

Which makes her beg the question, where is he? Could he be on his way to save her? Has he called the police to track her down and rescue her? She could only hope.

She just wants to get out of there…

Suddenly, she heard noises from outside the warehouse. Sounds of a fight, gunfire and even explosions.

"We got intruders! Get outside boys!" one of the gang members yelled out. A whole group of them exited the warehouse brandishing guns. Was it her saviors, coming to free her from the gang?

"Are we still gonna roll camera, Rip?" the cameraman, a shark Dagonian, asked. "We're still gonna roll the footage! Do it already!" Rip shouted back. He really needed the money, she thought, despite the commotion outside.

* * *

"Camera's rolling Rip!"

The video camera lit up with a red light.

The gang leader, Rip, stood beside Cerebella's chair. Suddenly, she felt something strong holding the back of her head by the hair. She could feel Rip's sharp claws hitting her scalp.

"Greetings, Medicis!" he shouted to the camera. Rip pulled her head back to get her to face the camera. She was eye to eye with the lens.

"Today we have captured your most precious little darling today at school. We have her right here, snug in a place no one could ever know, not even you!"

Idiot, she thought. From the looks of the place, she could already guess it was a warehouse. Warehouses were always located in North Meridian, the port district of the entire kingdom. Any idiot with a brain could already guess where they are at. Guess Rip wasn't that smart to not leave a clue in the video.

"We could let her go," Rip continued, "but you gotta pay us first!"

He then screams out the number.

"20 million dollars! In cash, divided into suitcases!"

Cerebella was surprised by their ballsiness. $20 million for just a low-level gang like them? That's asking too much just for them, and they're demanding the money from the most powerful crime family in the Canopy Kingdom.

"This is our final offer! Refuse…" Rip raises his left hand and backhands Cerebella across the face. "AND THE GIRL GETS IT!"

Cerebella let out a cry of pain. The backhand left bruise on her cheek. She looked up to see Snipes the eel laughing at her misfortune. His partner, Slim, could only look on in shock. Was he shocked at how much his boss was willing to hurt the girl to get the ransom cash?

"You've got 4 hours to get the money ready. Hand off is at the docks in North Meridian. Clock's ticking Medicis, or you're never gonna see your girl again!"

The camera's red light finally clicked off.

"Alright, done. We're sending the video now?" the cameraman asked Rip.

"Transfer the video to that limo driver's phone and send it to his boss. He'll get the message!" Rip said, laughing all the while.

'His boss'. Cerebella realized who he was going to send the video to. She felt ashamed, getting herself stuck in a situation like this. She looked around the warehouse, looking for her bag. She finally found it, leaning on a table near where her chair is. If only she could reach it and pull out Vice Versa now. She slowly dragged herself and the chair to the table…

"Boss, he's moving to her bag!"

One of the men saw her. Of course, they were dozens of them in the warehouse. Rip quickly walks over to her and kicks her down. He takes her bag and instantly pulls out Vice Versa.

"Looking for this?"

The sentient orange hat with a skull was also tied in chains, bound and restricted as it too tried to break free. "This thing got some of my boys injured trying to break you free. Luckily, a guy gave me this…" Rip said, showing a device stuck onto the chain. It was a glass ball attached to a device that stuck onto the chain. Inside was a swirling ball of purple-coloured light. "This thing helps to knock out and weaken a lot of your types. 'Living Weapons' they call them?" he continued, "Either way, he's not gonna get you out of here!"

He puts his foot onto her cheek and slowly he puts pressure on her head.

"So why don't you be a good girl and SIT DOWN!" he screamed at her. Cerebella cried out in pain as his foot strains her head harder and harder. It was immeasurable, his weight and strength were too much for her to handle and act tough. She begged to some unseen entity to see her now and free her from this predicament. Tears were flowing from her eyes.

"Video's done sent boss!" one of Rip's members yelled out.

"Excellent. The intruders? Have they been taken care of?" Rip asked the cameraman. "Uh...about that-" before he could finish, another gangster hurriedly runs to Rip from outside the warehouse. He was panting and breathing frantically, sweat running down the sides of his head. "Boss, we got a situation outside!" he shouted to his boss.

"What situation?"

"There's a-"

Suddenly, before he could finish, the large steel doors of the warehouse swung open and a man flung through the opening, passing through his fellow members and slamming into a steel pillar.

"What the hell?!"

Cerebella saw four silhouettes through the doorway of the warehouse. She only noticed the one in the middle, one with a horn. She could only gleam in relief and joy.

"Is that you? Scythana…"


	6. Getting Dangerous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scythana, Mr. A, Filia and Carol set out to find where the gangsters have taken Cerebella, leading them to a warehouse in North Meridian, where things take a turn for the dangerous.

The sound of seagulls filled the air at the docks. As they arrived, clouds have turned the sky into a sea of grey. The ocean waves crashed into the walls of the harbour.

"We're here".

Mr. A stepped out of the car first, observing the area, followed by Scythana, Filia, and Carol. They were in an area full of warehouses, usually belonging to companies who store their items before they're delivered or shipped elsewhere. Some of them were abandoned however, including the one they were headed to.

A sort of grey colour palette permeated the place. The old harbour had existed since the time of King Renoir in his youth, probably 20 or 30 years ago. Age has not been kind to the harbour; the warehouses, minus the ones specially requested to be renovated or rebuilt, were rusted and dilapidated. Old ones, belonging to long defunct shipping and delivering companies, were left to rot as nobody was in the rush to acquire them. Mr. A checked his phone to see where the red dot on his GPS was leading them.

"You know where the car is now?" Scythana asked Mr. A.

"According to the GPS, the limo is currently parked near one of the warehouses" he said, "It's about north from here, follow me".

Before they moved, Mr. A pointed at Filia and Carol, "You girls stay in the car. Fun ride's over" he said.

Filia's expression was that of annoyance. "You can't just do that! We're going to save our friend!" she explained to him. Carol from behind her didn't say anything, but she showed approval by simply nodding her head.

"Look, thinking about it, these guys have guns. You're just coming here unarmed, not even a way to protect yourself-"

"We're following whether you like it or not! We can help!" Filia countered back. She was clearly stubborn about saving their friend. Mr. A lets out a sigh.

"Alright, you girls can follow me" he said, exasperated. "Still, sit by the side lines. Don't get yourself hurt, understand?" Filia and Carol nodded, but something tells Scythana she wants to get in on the action.

As they followed Mr. A, Scythana begins to ponder if Cerebella is alright. Currently, she felt that it was her responsibility to save her from her kidnappers, so this was to atone for that. However, she also began to worry about her classmates tagging along. Sure, she supported their decision to help save their classmate as well, but knowing that her kidnapper is armed, this could mean the whole gang could be as well. Still, there was something she didn't tell Filia about.

She noticed that she was wearing a hat, even indoors and in class. As she looked at it, she noticed something was…moving underneath that hat. She did not want to say anything out of fear it might insult her personally. Carol too, something about her hides something within, especially those X marks on her face. She couldn't shake the feeling that her classmates aren't exactly regular human beings.

Finally, Mr. A spotted something. "There it is" he said to the group, pointing them towards a warehouse.

It was another dilapidated, probably in even worse condition than the others. A big number "6" was painted white on the wall of the warehouse, and a big, rusty steel gate closed the entrance to inside the warehouse. Outside, Mr. A could spot out some men. Some wearing suits, some wearing leather jackets; All of them thugs, armed with either pipes or even tommy guns and uzis. The black limo there were looking for was also there, before the car suddenly starts up and drives off, straight into the harbour. In a distance, a loud splash.

They were trying to get rid of evidence, not that the police wouldn't just salvage the car later.

"We have to get in there somehow" he whispered, the group quickly hiding behind a cargo crate. There were gangsters with guns on the cargo crates near the metal door, two more guarding the front door directly, while there are three to five of them walking around looking for anything suspicious.

However, as they were looking for another way in, luck decides to leave their graces.

Behind them, a guard came out of the corner of another warehouse, fresh from relieving herself near a wall. He spotted the four of them hiding near the cargo crate.

"Intruder, we got an intruder!" he shouted into his radio, alerting his other friends.

"We've been compromised!" Mr. A growled. Quickly he pulled a silenced pistol from his trench coat and swiftly fired two shots at the guard. The first bullet hit his gun arm while the other hit his knee. He fell to the ground, incapacitated as he cried in pain.

"Let's go!" Mr. A said to the group. They quickly ran out of their hiding spot, but it was too late, gangsters began surrounding them from all sides.

"We have you surrounded, give up or you're all dead meat!" one of them shouted, a Dagonian. Scythana's heart raced, they could be shot down in a matter of seconds, however she was more worried about her friends than herself.

Carol started whimpering in fear as she hugged Filia, holding her tight as her friend caressed her to calm her down. Mr. A looked on defiantly as he raised his hands.

"Don't shoot! We mean no harm!" he shouted to the gangsters. His left hand began reaching for something underneath his trench coat.

"He's about to do something, shoot him!"

Scythana at that moment panicked. Her driver, whom she only met today, was about to get his life taken right in front of her. She had to do something. She had to get him out of harm's way. Finally, she made her move.

"Look out!" She pushed Mr. A out of the way as the gangster pulls the trigger of his pistol.

*BANG!*

* * *

The bullet travelled straight to the target, straight towards Scythana's forehead.

Everyone was shocked. Filia and Carol gasped in shock. Mr. A looked on in fear, knowing that his escort was finally done for. Scythana stumbled back from the impact. Suddenly, she hunched forward.

A single bullet fell down to the ground, crushed to the point it was nearly flattened.

"W…what the hell?" the gangster who pulled the trigger expressed his confusion. There's no way in hell she could have survived that.

"You…" a growl came from her. She looked towards the shooter, smoke coming off her forehead from the shot's impact.

It barely pierced through her head, not even a scratch.

"You leave my friends…" slowly she curled her left hand into a fist, trembling with anger.

"ALOOONE!"

The gangster was too scared to react. This girl, this high school student just survived getting shot to the head. She rushed towards him, her face transformed into an expression of anger and fury, the face of a berserker, a wild animal looking to rip and tear apart her prey, her eyes turning yellow.

The guard fired another two shots, but it was no use. Bullets deflected off of her like it was nothing. She jumped up and landed a punch that sent him slamming onto the cold hard asphalt unconscious. The other guards surrounding her were also scared out of their wits.

"SHOOT HER, SHOOT HER!" one of them yelled. They unloaded their automatics on her to no effect, as she began to dispatch and knock them out one by one.

"Don't just stand there, shoot her friends!" The guards surrounding Filia, Carol and Mr. A had their guns trained on them. Luckily, Mr. A had a trick up his sleeve; suddenly the smoke filled the air and obscured their view.

"Damn smoke bomb! Open fire!"

The guards fired wildly into the smoke, hopefully hitting their targets. One of the guards could hear a voice, deep and growling.

"Knock knock!"

Suddenly, a black, hairy tendril emerged from the smoke and grabbed him by the legs, slamming him to the ground and into his friends before throwing him away. More guards converge near the fight, but they are suddenly greeted with a rolling, hairy ball of violence speeding towards them from the smoke. All but one unlucky guard ran away, letting him get hit by the ball so hard he gets knocked back into a cargo crate. From the rolling ball, Filia uncurled herself.

"Man, doing that hurts my thighs!" she said, stretching herself.

"I told ya to get some exercise Filia!" It was her Parasite, the prehensile hair demon Samson.

"Where's Carol?!" she began to worry. Suddenly, she heard a familiar voice. A scream.

"I'LL DESTROY YOU ALL!" A scream mixed with anger and grief, even deeper than Scythana's. "Oh no..." Filia whispered.

In the distance, guards are being thrown away and knocked out onto the ground. From the smoke, a gangly figure emerged, holding a guard in her arms by the collar. He tried to break free, punching her arms but it was no use; she would not let him go. Her arms and legs were covered in surgical markings and scars, nails and spikes. A brown, ragged mask, with an "X" shaped mark across the mask covered her face, her eyes glowing red through the holes. However, most frighteningly, there was a large, sharp wheel-blade protruding from her back, looming from behind her and rotating. She was ready to dismember this man alive.

"Carol stop!"

The figure turned towards Filia, reacting to her name. "You don't have to kill him!".

Her friend's desperate pleas reached out to her, apparently, as she slammed the guard onto the floor instantly knocking him out. Suddenly, guards began shooting at her from behind. One of them threw a live grenade at the beast they saw. Carol blocked their shots with the large wheel-blade on her back, before deflecting the grenade away with it, exploding in the air and knocking out the other guards. She was still not in control, still trembling and shaking.

Filia hurried over to her, and instantly embraced her in a hug. "It's alright, we're still fine…" she whispered to her. The soothing sound of her voice calmed Carol down, as she too hugged Filia. "Can you still fight like this?"

"Y…yes…I'm…fine" Carol muttered out a few words.

"Never knew you girls had Parasites!" As the smoke finally cleared, the girls looked to see Mr. A, bodies of the guards around him, fresh from having taken down another guard held by his collar. His gas mask from before was finally broken around his head, revealing several patches of silver hair beneath.

"Who exactly are you?" Filia asked.

Finally, Mr. A took off the trench coat, fedora and gas mask he had on for the whole day. Underneath his trench coat was the official uniform of the Canopy Kingdom military, a red band of an umbrella on his left shoulder. Behind the gas mask was a man who's seen experience in the military, his silver hair combed back.

"Actually, the name's Adam. Adam Kapowski of the Black Egrets" explained Adam to the girls.

He casually shot a guard in the knee that was charging for him from behind without even looking, all while maintaining the focused look on his face.

"At your service".

Behind them, Scythana is still fighting the guards, who all resort to ganging up on the Gigan and piling on her to restrain her from rampaging her. The effort was worthless, as she broke free and blew all of them away.

The fight was over. Every guard was knocked out from the group's combined efforts.

Scythana breathed in and out, still fresh from her berserker rampage. She turned to look at her companions to see they were alright. She knew something was up with Filia and Carol, what with the thing on Filia's head and Carol's…drastic makeover. Adam had already shed his disguise as Mr. A, a given since she already knew who he was but was mandated to never reveal his identity unless he revealed it himself.

"You guys are alright!" Scythana said, calming down. Her eyes returned to from yellow to white as she calmed down.

"Man, who knew Gigans could survive bullets?" Samson said, forming his tendrils to look like he is scratching his chin. "We thought you would have…died there, Scythana" Filia continued, smiling in relief.

Scythana looked at Carol's current form. It was certainly freakish, but she seemed to have calmed down. "Are you alright Carol?"

She only nodded.

"Come on, let's head inside now before they send in more guards" Adam said, reloading his gun. In Scythana's opinion, she thought they just took down the entire force of the gangsters.

They all headed for the rusty main door of the warehouse, only guarded by two gangsters who were already scared out of their pants over what just happened. It was not long before his partner booted out of there back inside the warehouse. "Where ya goin-"

Before his partner who was left behind could finish, Scythana grabbed him by the collar.

"Is our friend inside?" she growled to him. The guard panicked, he couldn't get out of the grip of the Gigan. He looked at her and her other equally dangerous friends, all of whom had already taken out his other friends.

"Uhh…yeah?" he whimpered.

Scythana smiled before she rears her hand holding the guard behind her and, with her full force, threw him so hard he burst the doors wide open from the sheer force, slamming head-first onto a rusty metal pillar.

They saw the inside of the warehouse; an entire gang hideout, filled with what's left of the goons. At the middle, spotlights shined onto the kidnappers and a big crocodile man wearing a jacket, the gang leader. Beneath his left foot was Cerebella, tied to a chair with chains. She was being pressed against the floor underneath his foot.

"Cerebella!" Scythana shouted at the gang leader, Rip. The crocodile let out a thick, raspy laugh.

"HAHAHAHA! Looking for her?"

* * *

Author's Note:

I had fun writing the scenes here. Leave your comments about the action scenes so far!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had fun writing this chapter. What are your thoughts about the action scenes so far?


	7. The Stand-Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scythana's group come face to face with the leader behind Cerebella's kidnapping.

The atmosphere inside the warehouse became tense. Scythana looked around to survey the situation. There were still goons with guns who could shoot them down if they want to. If not her, then her friends would become the victims of the crossfire. In front of her, the leader of the gang, a crocodile with brown jacket and black jeans, stared at her. Beneath his foot, Cerebella laid unconscious.

“Let her go!” Scythana shouted to him. The crocodile could only laugh.

“Who knew that a Gigan would come save this girl?” he exclaimed, finally moving his foot off of Cerebella’s head. He began to walk closer towards the group.

Scythana could see how big he was. He was nearly as tall as her, yet he was bigger than her, broad shoulders and intimidating size notwithstanding. He stopped a few feet apart from Scythana.

“I know how your kind couldn’t even be dented by bullets…” he said. He still kept the same smug grin from before. “However, your friends aren’t as bulletproof as you are!”

“These girls are more than just normal schoolgirls” Adam broke his silence.

“Lookie here, if it isn’t Major Adam of the Black Egrets…” Rip said, turning towards Adam. “…who would’ve thought you would be in cahoots with a bunch of schoolgirls and a Gigan?”

His hands reached out into his jacket’s inner coat, pulling out a double-barrel shotgun. It was short, but in Adam’s experience it was still deadly to kill a man at close range. “Now then, Gigan…” Rip pronounced the word with a certain tinge of disgust in his voice.

“I’ll give you the count of 3. If you don’t buck outta here, my boys will have to shoot you all down” he growled, aiming his shotgun towards both Filia and Carol.

“Don’t you dare hurt them!” Samson finally shouted out, extending his hair tendrils which have become sharp spikes. Rip could only laugh.

“You kill me, my boys will shoot you all the same!” he exclaimed. Behind him, Rip’s men aimed their guns towards the group. His threats were serious, at his command if Scythana isn’t the one to eat lead…

Her friends surely will.

Suddenly, Adam taps on her shoulder. She turned to look at him. “Trust me…” Adam could only say to her. She does not know what Adam has in store, but she could only hope it could be something to turn the tides in their favour.

Rip raised his right hand, showing 1 finger.

“ONE!”

Two fingers…

“TWO!”

Their hearts raced, immensely fearing for the hail of bullets to come.

Suddenly, a loud of clicking noise.

“THREE!”

*BOOM!*

* * *

A thick gust of smoke covered the air in the warehouse. None of the gunmen could see their targets, blindly firing into their last location. They began looking around for any signs of the group.

Suddenly, a shot rang out and hit one of the gunmen’s Tommy gun, disabling it. Soon, more and more of their guns were destroyed from bullets fired by the mysterious gunmen. At the end, all of their Tommy guns and Uzis lie crumbled and destroyed onto the floor.

“Damn! WHERE ARE THEY!?” Rip yelled out.

“OVER HERE!”

From the smoke, a fist appeared to punch Rip right in his jaw. The force knocked him back to the centre of the warehouse. The smoke began to clear, and Filia made her first move.

“GREGOR SAMSA!”

Suddenly from the withering smoke, Filia darted out of it with her hair having turned into the wings and horns of an insect. She knocked four gangsters before landing on the ground. “Let’s go Samson!” she exclaimed.

“Hell yeah!” Samson replied, his hair tendrils becoming spikes.

The gangsters, without their guns, pulled out their melee weapons, blunt pipes and wood, sharp machetes and knives. If they could not shoot them, at least they could bash or cut them. They charged towards Filia, but she delivered a standing punch to an unlucky mook’s chest that sent him backwards and dropped his baseball bat.

“I’ll take that!”

Samson extended of his tendrils to wrap it around the baseball bat. Filia delivers flying punches and kicks on the goons while Samson smacks them around with his bat and tendrils.

Meanwhile in the distance, Carol roars as she jumps into the fray. The goons all try to get close to her, but she was swinging her blade-wheel erratically around her. One of them managed to get close and hit her by the side of her head with his pipe, only for the pipe to break in half on impact.

“NO…KILLING!” she growled.

She turned around to look at him dead in the eye and lets out a deafening roar. The mook was too scared to do anything, leading to Carol grabbing him by his face and slamming him to the floor. The other guards quickly made a run for it from her, clearly too scared out of their wits to fight the girl turned beast.

Adam meanwhile took down the lot of the gangsters left and right, maintain footsies with the mooks before taking them down in a series of punches. His skills in military boxing payed off, as he quickly annihilated most of the gangsters with quick reflexes and a flurry of punches. Not even the gangsters with pipes and bats could put a single scratch on him, he was simply too fast for them. “I could take on you punks all day!” he exclaimed, all the while smiling.

As the three continue to fight off the goons, Scythana had a score to settle with Rip. He was still lying on the floor, recovering from the one punch the Gigan gave him. “Hehehe, guess you Gigans REALLY are that strong…” Rip growled, getting up on his feet as he licked the blood of the edge of his mouth. “Still…”

“I should’ve died there. You knocked me REAL hard…”

“I don’t want to kill anyone right now. Not while I’m in another kingdom” Scythana explained, cracking her knuckles. Rip could only laugh at her answer.

“A pacifist Gigan! The world keeps getting weirder day by day!”

“You only have one choice whoever you are: let my friend go, or I’ll do worse than this…” Scythana could only try to threaten, hopefully put some sense into the crocodile gangster. She had restrained her strength to avoid actually killing anyone. All she could at this point is to merely break their bones, leaving them alive while unable to fight.

But he was not going to hear any of it.

“You listen here Gigan! In this town, it’s a dog eat dog kind of business!” Rip yelled. “You don’t have the stomach to do what it takes, you’re not gonna survive!”

“Then why kidnap a random schoolgirl right in front of everyone?!”

“Because her family is powerful, she’s a member of the Medici mafia, the biggest mob family in town!” As he explained, he tucked his hands into his jacket.

“We needed the money. Without it, our gang won’t survive here in this town, we’re small enough as it is! And you ain’t gonna stop us!”

Suddenly, he pulled out another gun from under his jacket, a grenade launcher, and fired a grenade directly into her face. The explosion rocked the entire warehouse, catching the attention of the other gangsters and Scythana’s friends.

“Scythana!” Filia yelled.

* * *

The loud sound and force of the explosion shook Cerebella awake. As she slowly came to, her vision still a blur, she saw the ongoing fight between Filia, Carol and Adam in front of her. Behind her, she saw a gust of smoke, the aftermath of the explosion.

Suddenly, from the smoke, a figure came flying out of it and landed right next to the chair where she was tied to.

It was Scythana, freshly beaten and covered in dust and debris. Cerebella was surprised to see her now as her saviour out of this mess. “Scythana, are you alright?!” Cerebella said to the Gigan. She turned to look at her bound form. Her school uniform was dirtied and tattered, the explosion having torn off her uniform’s left sleeve, exposing her muscled arms.

“Yeah, I’m fine…” she replied. The explosion looked like it did nothing to her, only leaving a few scratches on her face and clothing. She looked towards the smoke, noting how he could not have survived a point blank explosion, even for a crocodile man like him.

Cerebella again tried to shake herself free from the chains, to no avail.

“Here, hold still” Scythana took a hold of the chains wrapped around her and effortlessly breaks them apart with her bare hands, followed by the chains wrapping her legs. Finally, Cerebella was free.

“I…” Cerebella stuttered for a moment, looking away from her saviour while rubbing her hands. Her cheeks had that sensation again. She began to blush like she did before. “Thank you-“

Before she could give her thanks, suddenly a piece of debris comes flying out of the smoke. “Look out!” Scythana shouted as she quickly hugged Cerebella and shielded her from the flying debris with her back.

“You think I’m done, Gigan?!” A voice echoed out, even more deep and monstrous than before.

As the smoke cleared, Rip came into view, but this time, he looked radically different. He became bigger, much bigger than his regular goons and even Scythana earlier. Spikes grew from his back, his teeth and canines were bigger, his claws visibly and audibly sharper. He had suddenly grown into a monster.

“How the hell did he do that?!” Scythana could only exclaim in shock at the monstrosity she was seeing.

Rip let out a monstrous roar before charging forward towards Scythana and Cerebella, however they both jumped out of the way of his charge. Angered, he let out another roar.

“GIGAAAAAAAAN!” he roared. His eyes turned red and his pupils dilated. He quickly grabbed one of his own men, Snipes. “Aaa…aah bosssssss, put me down!” Snipes screamed out, but his cries were not heard by Rip. He threw him towards Cerebella, luckily jumping out of the way as he hit the wall behind her instead.

“Gyaaaah! Let’s get outta here!” Slim, the rotund gangster shouted to the group, quickly running away for the exit. The other gangsters abandoned fighting Scythana’s group and followed him too.

Now they had bigger problems to worry about.

Cerebella began looking around for her hat, Vice-Versa. Luckily, she spotted it lying on the floor, still with that device latched onto it. Scythana saw what she was doing, but before she could go and help her, Rip made his move. He jumped high up and slammed down onto the floor, sending a shockwave that knocked Scythana to a wall.

He dashed forward and threw a punch at her, but she sidestepped out of the way so his fist hit and got stuck in a wall instead. She countered back with three punches to the side of his face, but that did not faze the beast at the very least. Rip backhanded her across the room before charging towards her with his claws at the ready, releasing a flurry of slashes that Scythana could barely block. The attack left deep, bloody gashes all over her, yet she relented, throwing another flurry of punches on his stomach.

That too did nothing.

Rip curled both of his hands together into fists right above his head and sent a massive hammer strike on Scythana. She was dazed, exhausted and injured from his previous attacks, so she could only try to block the blow, but the first strike already broke her defense open, and the second sent her straight onto the floor and finally, Rip sent down a third strike straight to her chest, knocking her deeper into the floor causing cracks to appear across it.

Scythana lied down there, unconscious.

Rip lets out a victorious battle cry. He was the winner, the last man standing of this battle.

His trump card worked, despite the injuries from his grenade attack. His “secret weapon” helped him to beat even a Gigan, a race whose people are naturally freakishly powerful, yet he stood triumphant. With the unconscious Gigan girl below him, he prepared his fist. He was ready to end this meddling Gigan…


	8. Breaking Chains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The entire team work together to defeat their mutated foe

"GET AWAY FROM HER!"

*SHING!*

*CLANG!*

In a single stroke, Rip's raised fist met Carol's blade-wheel. Yet, despite her attack, her blade did not even manage to cut through his entire hand. It was still stuck not even halfway through it. "PATHETIC!" Rip yelled out. He raised his left fist to attack her, but she darted out of the way to land on the ground near him. Sharp spikes painfully protrude themselves from underneath her arms, preparing a battle stance.

"CORKSCREW DRILL!"

From above, Filia dived down as Samson wrapped around to form a drill to pierce Rip. Yet as it landed right on his forehead, even the revolving tip of the hair-drill did not pierce through his skull. Filia jumped away, landing near Carol to maintain distance away from the monster. Suddenly, a grenade shell from behind them landed directly on Rip.

"GIRLS!" It was Adam who fired the shot, having brought a grenade launcher of his own. "Keep him away from Scythana!"

"Got it!" Filia and Samson shouted in unison.

The explosion aggravated Rip. He looked towards Adam with hatred and anger on his mind.

"KILL!" he screamed out.

Adam noted how much more primordial he had become. Rip charged towards him only for Adam to dodge. He assessed how he was only attacking through instinct, and that his transformation was instantaneous. Was it something flowing through his veins that caused him to undergo his monstrous transformation? He could only ponder, as he continued to fire shells upon shells of grenades on the beast.

Filia and Carol attacked him simultaneously, the latter beginning to punch him repeatedly instead. Filia had Samson try and pierce him with his hair tendrils, but to no effect. They knew they would simply hold out until Scythana could recover.

Rip suddenly turned around and punched Carol away from him, making her crash into a pillar. "Carol!" Filia shouted in shock.

"Time to get serious Samson!"

"Got it!" Samson yelled out.

At her command, Samson began taking upon a more physical form. From merely blending on Filia's head like hair, he changes into a more monstrous form, extending hair to become arms as he forms a bestial like head. Filia jumped towards Rip and let Samson bite on his back. As he bit and attached on his back, Samson began sending a flurry of punches at high speed, both quick and powerful, sending Rip staggering to the ground as he tried to withstand the blows from his punches.

But he already had a counter move.

Slowly, tiny nubs began emerging from his back, gradually getting sharper. "Samson, look out!" Filia shouted, noticing his back getting more and more filled with tiny spikes. Quickly, Samson released himself from his back just in time to see Rip fully extending metres-long spikes from his back. A defense mechanism. It barely trimmed off a part of Samson.

"Damn, how do we get past that?!" Samson shouted. Filia looked on as Rip set his eyes on her, roaring. "KILL TINY PEST!"

"With this!"

Out of nowhere, large chunks of floor debris flew towards Rip and hit him on his back. Aggravated, he looked around to see where it came from. A huge, orange fist greeted him instead as it landed a punch square on his face. It only knocked him back a bit, yet it still did the job of aggravating him even further.

"Sorry I'm late Filia!"

It was Cerebella. She had regained control of her "Living Weapon", Vice-Versa, an orange hat she could wear on her head that can grow large muscular arms bigger than her entire body.

"Oh, that jerkwad?! You're telling me we have to fight alongside THIS jerk here?!" Samson shouted as he pointed at the hat. Vice-Versa, having a tiny skull with horns as a centrepiece, could only emote with an angry expression. In the distance, Rip let out another roar.

"Enough fooling around!" Cerebella shouted. At that instant, Vice-Versa began to dig its hands into the floor and lift out a chunk of it. It then crushed it together into its hands, creating a large, shining diamond.

"Hey, you, whoever you are!" she shouted to Adam. "Me and Filia will keep him busy! You go and wake Scythana up!"

To be forced around by a highschooler, Adam lamented. Yet he agreed, running off to where Scythana was lying as Cerebella punched Rip with the large diamond she had just made. It was effective, knocking Rip back away from her as she prepared another attack. "He's too strong!" Filia shouted.

"Then we have to hit him with all we got!" Cerebella said to her, swinging her arms in a circle, getting herself ready for something. "You ready Vice-Versa?".

The skull headpiece on the hat nodded.

She reared herself back into a starting position before eventually breaking out into a sprint, her head tilted forward. Vice-Versa then grew horns like that of a ram's, before eventually increasing speed.

"BATTLE RAM!"

They charge headfirst into Rip's stomach with all their might. It appeared to knock the wind out of him as he reared back from the blow. "Now Filia! Give it all you got!"

Filia jumped high up into the air, Samson still maintaining his physical fighting form from earlier. "Here we go!" he yelled. He reared his arms back before delivering a flurry of punches at Rip's head.

"HUNDRED PUNCH SPEED RUSH!"

Samson delivered his punches at high speed, fully intending to deliver full damage to the beast's cranium. Meanwhile, Cerebella was ready for another attack. She charged towards his abdomen again all the while holding one of Vice-Versa's massive arms.

"CERE-COPTER!"

With her strength, she pushed Vice-Versa's arms as it extended, letting it create a spinning motion on top of her head like that of helicopter blades. Both girls were simultaneously attacking him, both initiating their strongest attack in hopes of knocking him down.

"TIME TO FINISH THIS!" Cerebella yelled, stopping Vice-Versa's arms from spinning any longer.

"ALRIGHT! LET'S GO!"

Samson stopped his flurry of punches, only to extend both of his back as far as they could behind him, with Filia doing the same with hers. Cerebella also did the same, extending their arms to their back.

"BIG…" In unison, both of the girls quickly sent their arms forward with open palms, sending an attack with massive force on both Rip's head and abdomen, slamming the beast straight onto the floor.

"…FINISH!"

* * *

The girls stood as they watched Rip's unconscious body on the floor. They finally did it, they managed to beat the monster that moments before had hurt their friends.

"Now that…" Cerebella muttered as Vice Versa flexes its left arm and brought it closer for her to kiss it.

"…is for hurting my friend!"

Meanwhile, Adam looked on as he tried to wake up Scythana from earlier. She was still unconscious, battered and injured from her fight with Rip before. Her eyes were still closed, yet he could still feel her pulse. "Wake up, Scythana!" he said, applying pressure to her chest in performing CPR.

"It's over. Your friends won!"

Filia hurried over to where Carol was lying unconscious near a pillar. Cerebella looked at where Adam and Scythana were, worried about her new friend.

Or was it admirer? Soul mate?

…Lover?

She felt that sensation again. The blushing, the feeling of ecstasy when thinking about her. She wished that she would be all right, that she could go out with her once all of this is done.

However, all of them did not realize what would happen next.

"PUNY…HUMAN!"

Suddenly, from behind her, Rip had recovered. And one of his fists was raised up into the air to strike down on Cerebella. He was already quick to bring it down on her, so she quickly blocked herself with Vice-Versa's arms. The beast laughed, as he put pressure on the girl. Cerebella could only hold for so long.

"Cerebella!" Filia shouted. "We have to save her!"

Samson groaned, yet he complied with Filia's wishes as they rushed over to attack Rip. Samson formed his tendril into a fist and punched the crocodile beast in the face, but he was unfazed. Filia and Samson could only look in shock as Rip headbutted them out of the way, knocking them to the floor. "Filia!" Cerebella shouted, strained from holding back against his fist. But she didn't answer; she and Samson were already unconscious.

"DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU GIRLS AND YOUR PARASITES COULD KILL ME?!" Rip screamed out. Vice-Versa was starting to give out from the immense strength. Adam shook Scythana faster. "Scythana wake up, please!" he shouted. Still no response. Cerebella looked on as Vice-Versa slowly became weakened.

"THIS IS THE END!"

"VICE, NO!"

Rip managed to knock back both of Vice-Versa's arms with sheer force, leaving only Cerebella.

But she was relentless. She was not going to die like this.

With her own arms, she held back Rip's fist as she stood her ground. Yet, it already put a lot of strain on her, as she lowered and lowered her body just to try and hold back against him.

"GIVE IT UP! YOU CAN'T WIN!" Rip yelled.

Cerebella was already lying on her back still clutching his fist, yet this was still too much for her as her arms began shaking.

This cannot be it, she thought. Her end, right here?

Immense pain flooded through her arms. Finally, her arms gave out, and the fist finally landed and pinned her to the ground. Rip let out a toothy grin, as he began to slowly apply pressure on her entire body, intending to crush her. Cerebella cried out in pain, as she too tried to withstand against the Rip's pressure. "WHY WON'T YOU DIE, BRAT!" he yelled out.

She coughed up blood, as immense pain flared through her entire body. She only has one hope, one saviour she could rely on. All she could do is to cry out in tears.

"Scythana!" she cried out. "Help me! Please, wake up!"

Adam tried to lure him away with bullets, firing shots at his head with his pistol to no effect. Yet, he still stood there crushing the poor girl with his fist, listening to her pained cries…

* * *

"Scythana, my little one. When you are living in the settlement of humans, Dagonians, and other non-Gigans, you must preserve and restrain your strength. You must not cause violence wherever you go. You remembered what I taught you, right? About the "Chains of Gaia?" Our Mother God's blessing allows half-Gigans such as you to restrain ourselves. Our lowest restraint restricts our strength to only being above average of a human's. It would also calm and sedate our natural instinct for violence."

"But, father, what if…violence is needed for a situation? Sometimes, we can't avoid violence in confrontations, and I might be too handicapped to deal with it-"

"You will not KILL, my daughter. Even if you are to release your "chains", you must not, in any circumstances, kill someone. You know that, right? Do it for your people, Scythana. For your family, your home. For me, too. I love you, little cub. I know you can think for yourself what's best. I will wish for your safety and prosperity in your travels in a strange land."

"…I will, father. I love you, too. I will keep myself safe".

"Promise me you will do that, lass?"

"…I promise"

* * *

"HEEELP! SCYTHANA!"

The desperate cries of her name awakened her from unconsciousness. She looked to her left to see the monstrous beast, still alive. Cerebella was pinned down under his fist. She knew he was doing it just to make her suffer until she dies.

The sight of it made her blood boil. To see the cruelty of people willing to hurt others for their own gain.

She slowly rose up, yet she quickly felt her body being weak. She was still hurt from her last fight with Rip, but Cerebella's life was hanging on a thread, and she must be saved before it was too late.

It was time for her to break her "chains". The sacred chains that have been keeping her strength in check as a Gigan. The chains that handicapped her of natural Gigan abilities, such as increased strength and regeneration. It was time for her to break it.

She needed all the strength she could muster to fight and hopefully end the beast's madness once and for all.

She maintained a balanced composure and took a deep breath. She closed her eyes and casted her mind deep into thought…

* * *

The Chains of Gaia. The sacred chains in the name of the Mother Creator, Gaia. These chains were mentally used by certain breeds of Gigans, such as half-breeds such as herself, to bind their Gigan soul as to ensure their strength and natural instinct for violence would not cause chaos and disharmony to those around them. Three "chains" held and restricted Scythana's soul, as intended, to restrict her of her strength and fighting instincts.

She needed only to break one.

"O Mother Gaia" she whispered in prayer.

"Please, let me break one of your chains. I need my strength to help save my friends. I promised, to my father and to my people, that this strength will be used not to kill, but to help save my friends in need. Please, Mother Gaia, without my strength to help them, my friends will suffer…"

Silence.

"…your wish is granted, little Gigan…"

A voice called out to her. Suddenly, a chain that was bound to her soul finally broke apart. Scythana felt a surge of power flowing within her. It was invigorating, powerful. A massive boost in power.

This should be all she needed to take down Rip once and for all.

* * *

Rip finally had her right where he wanted. Slowly suffering by his hands, this tiny human, once his hostage, will soon be done for in an instant. He lifted his fist to observe her condition. She was injured, lying limp on the floor as she struggled for breath. An empty stare in her eyes as she could only weakly raise her arms. Without a second thought, he finally prepared to go for the kill. He lifted both of his fists high above his head.

"DIE, WORM!" he screamed.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!"

Suddenly, Rip's face met the impact of a fist that came from the back of the warehouse. It was a strong blow, even stronger than what the other two girls could muster with their efforts earlier. It was a punch so strong it sent him flying backwards, tumbling right through the main entrance of the warehouse and landing him outside. "WHAT THE HELL?!" he screamed, looking at his attacker.

It was Scythana, finally risen up from her unconsciousness. She was ready for a second round with the crocodile beast. However, she looked different. Her pupils dilated and slit to resemble something more primordial, her size becoming bigger, almost chest-high to Rip, her teeth were becoming longer, her sharp canines almost like a sabretooth tiger's teeth, but most noticeable of all she had grown a tinier horn next to her longer one on the left side of her head.

She had tapped into her Gigan blood just for this battle.

"Scythana…" Cerebella weakly muttered out the words as she looked at the Gigan. Scythana looked at the weak Cerebella, along with Filia and Carol who were unconscious. She began to tremble, but instead of fear, she felt anger, rage. She grimaced and bared her teeth, her eyes looked towards Rip, who was ready for another fight. In her eyes came a look of rage and determination, but most importantly they were the looks of a predator, catching prey within their sights. He will pay for what he did to her friends, she thought, no matter how much of a monster he is now.

Finally, she let out a roar.

It was deafening, a roar that shook the ground with it and made the surrounding birds fly away from fright. Adam had to close his ears due to the sheer loudness of it. She roared skywards, her arms to her sides as she let out all of her fury and rage in a single skyward roar. Finally, she stopped, and turned gaze directly towards Rip. Behind her, Adam carried Cerebella away to a safe place, away from where the battle might happen.

Scythana huffed loudly as she adopted a battle stance; left arm forward and right arm back, both of them bent towards her wit her claws shown to the enemy before putting her left leg forward and right leg back.

* * *

Scythana made the first step forward as she charged towards Rip. She jumped and threw a punch right towards his chest. He was still bearing his confidence from before, thinking that her attacks would not even faze her.

But he was wrong.

The attack managed to knock the wind out of him, making him kneel as he recovered his breath. Scythana screamed as she went for another punch on his stomach, knocking him right on his back as he fell from the impact. She jumped high up into the air and positioned herself to deliver an axe kick, but Rip managed to block it with his right arm. He reared his right arm to deliver a backhand right at Scythana, but he was in for a shock; the backhand did nothing. She still stood there unfazed and unfettered. She grabbed his open right arm and lifted him high above her.

For the first time in this new form, Rip became afraid. The Gigan finally showed her true strength, a fearsome strength not even his own monstrous form could surpass.

Scythana held Rip high above her and threw him up in the air. As he fell down, she lowered herself with her right fist at the ready.

"RISING GIGAN!"

She jumped into the air in a spiral motion and her fist held up above her head, managing to land a hit square on Rip's face. It knocked him back sideways before landing him onto the ground flat on his face. She charged towards him as he got up from recovering and delivered a flurry of punches. Rip tried dodging or blocking her punches, but it was in vain; he was too big and thus slower to move and wider to avoid getting hit, and his strength was beginning to wane in the face of Scythana's own natural strength. All of her punches connect as he tried to put up a miserable defense. She finally ended her punch flurry with a final punch to his face.

He reeled back in pain, holding his face as he felt blood bleeding from his nostrils and mouth. He became fearful, he looked at the Gigan in fear as she approached him. But he was not going to lose, he's not going to pester out to some Gigan, not while he had an underworld to conquer. He was not going to let her ruin his chance of success, despite how feeble his chances.

He threw a punch at Scythana's face, but no dice; she did not even flinch. He threw another punch, and another one right towards her torso. Nothing, not a scratch nor effect on her. Rip began panting heavily, he too was getting winded and tired, along with getting scared of his opponent.

Scythana only showed a big, toothy smile and an uproarious laugh. She was amused at how miserable Rip had become despite being an all-powerful monster earlier.

Scythana reared her fist back to throw another punch. Rip raised his arms to his face to block it, but nothing came. Suddenly, she quickly rushed over to his back. It was a fakeout. He quickly tried to turn around, but he was too slow. Scythana grabbed on to his waist from behind to deliver a devastating suplex.

"GIGAN SUPLEX!" she yelled.

The attack shook the ground along the compound and sent cracks along the asphalt.

Rip was devastated. By this point, it was a losing battle for him, yet he still believed that he was the one to win that battle, not the meddling Gigan before him. He slowly got up, but suddenly he felt his legs trembling. He felt as if he had begun losing control of his own weight, his own muscles losing their strength to hold his monstrous form. What was going on, he thought. The impact from Scythana's blows? A withdrawal effect?

Whatever it was, it distracted him long enough for Scythana to land a punch to his face.

Rip threw another punch in return, but Scythana easily sidestepped it to deliver another punch to his gut, winding him out even further. It was the point where he could not even move anymore, let alone think. He was open for the killing blow from Scythana.

"TIME TO TEST THOSE BONES, SHALL WE?!" Scythana screamed out.

Quickly Scythana grabbed both of Rip's leg and pulled him to the ground. It was clear he had become too weak at this point as he easily fell on his back to the ground. Still holding on to his legs, she proceeded to spin him around in a circle motion, gaining speed with every rotation. Rip screamed in terror throughout the spin, while Scythana could only laugh maniacally. Finally, she aimed skywards and threw her opponent high into the air.

She jumped high into the sky, catching up with Rip as he fell. He grabbed onto him and turned him sideways on her back. Her arms held onto him as they began their high-speed descent. "THIS CAN'T BE?!" Rip screamed out in terror. "THIS CAN'T BE THE END!"

"GIGAN BREAKER!"

As they fell from the sky smashing the tar, the force of the impact sent Rip's back smashing against Scythana's. An Argentine Backbreaker!

Rip finally felt. He felt every bone in his back including his spine breaking from the force of impact. He finally fainted as he dangled in Scythana's grasp. She still kneeled there after her attack, breathing in and out. Finally, she let him go.

It was done. The battle was finished. There was a clear winner in the battle, and the big large crocodile was not it…

* * *

Slowly, Rip's own body began shrinking in size. He deflated from his monstrous form into his original form before, sans jacket, leaving him only in his now torn-apart jeans. Scythana stood over him, observing the entire process. She too felt odd about his transformation, especially what caused him to turn into the monstrosity he was before. She began to calm down.

After the end of each use of her "Gigan Soul", she would have to mentally reattach the "chains" of Gaia that bound her soul, just to return her back to her "normal" form. She began shrinking down back to her size before, her teeth shrinking to normal, even her other horn retracted itself back into her skull.

She remembered her classmates and their conditions. She quickly hurried back to the warehouse, seeing Adam looking over Cerebella. Filia and Carol, who had recovered, stood beside him. "Adam!" Scythana shouted. "Will she be okay?"

Adam turned to Scythana and nodded. "Your friend will be fine" he said with a smile on his face. She looked at Cerebella. She looked heavily battered from the fight. "We'll have to take her to the hospital, where she'll heal"

"You guys alright?" Scythana directed towards Filia and Carol. Filia was clutching her arm, while Carol had returned to being herself. "Don't worry, we'll be fine" she said, smiling.

"Yeah, that guy was nothing!" Samson shouted out. Suddenly, Filia began pulling his tendrils.

"Ya doofus!" she shouted. "That 'guy' nearly killed us you know!?"

"Ow, ow, ouch! Ok I'm sorry!"

"Filia, you don't have to do that!" Carol said, though still in a meek tone as she tried to stop her friend from pulling her hair any further. Scythana could only laugh at what she was seeing.

Then she remembered Rip's transformation…

"Adam, you know why that guy could turn himself into something like that?" she asked him.

"No clue either" he replied. He then pulled out a syringe. "But then I found this".

It was a syringe, likely containing fluid based on the red-colored residue in the syringe itself. "I found it near the back of the warehouse".

"So, what now? What about him?" Scythana asked.

"Don't worry. I'd called the Black Egrets to come here and collect him".

Outside, the group heard the sounds of vehicle brakes, followed by footsteps.

"This must be the spot. Secure the criminal!" Loud, deep voices came from outside, sounding like military grunts. The group went outside to see men in black uniforms surveying the area, with one group handcuffing Rip and taking him into a van. All of them were wearing gas masks that concealed their faces. One of them approached Adam before giving a salute. Adam saluted the soldier back.

"Major Adam, we have secured the gang leader known as Rip Caiman!" the soldier said. "What are your orders?"

"Prepare two vehicles. I need one to send these two girls back home and one to send this girl to the hospital. I'll cover her expenses".

"Understood".

Both men saluted each other, before handing the soldier the unconscious Cerebella to be taken to the hospital. "Now, I need all of you to listen carefully" he said to the girls. "Whatever happened today, it's just between us. Don't spread it around to other people, alright?"

The girls nodded.

"Alright, I think it's about time we go home alright? Scythana, follow me".

"Wait, Scythana!"

Filia stopped Scythana before she could walk away.

"What's your telephone number?" she asked.

Scythana became confused. "My…number?" she said, confused.

"Don't tell me you came here without a telephone number?! I was going to ask you so I can call you when we hang out!"

Adam looked at Scythana getting into an awkward conversation with Filia. Somewhere, deep down in that soldier's heart, he was happy to see her adapting to the situation here. Already she had made good friends and connections. Yet, he also lamented that she too had also experienced the uglier side of the Canopy Kingdom.

Well, at least she hasn't seen the even uglier side of the kingdom, he thought….


	9. Take a Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the events of the day, Scythana finally managed to get a long-needed break. However, behind the scenes, a dangerous plot emerges...

"…On today's crime news, the leader of the "Sewer 88" gang, Rip Caiman, and his accomplice, Snipes McNeely, were arrested in a sting operation today at a warehouse in North Meridian. The sting was organized by the queen's personal militia, the Black Egrets, under the leadership of Major Adam Kapowski…"

The car drove down the highway towards New Meridian. Scythana was again staring out the window, pondering the events that had happened today. The evening sun was already on the horizon, in the seas beyond the North Meridian port. The sky was blanketed in crimson clouds illuminated by the setting sun, and a blue hue seemed paint the highway in an almost cool sense of colour.

"So…Scythana" Adam said, his eyes on the road as he drove the car. "How was your first day in school?"

"Besides all the kidnapping and fighting we did earlier?" Scythana replied. "It was great!"

"Glad you like it".

"But…there's some things about this kingdom I don't know about. What are the people besides humans? I saw people who look like fishes and reptiles, like the guy from earlier, and there are people with cat's ears and tails?"

The car approached the highway exit to New Meridian. The city lights were already lit up in the twilight. To Scythana, it looked even more grander than it was in daylight. She had never seen such a modern and massive city shine so bright in the night like this.

"Those other races, we call them Ferals and Dagonians" Adam finally replied, as if to let Scythana soak in the view. "One's a race who look like cats, while the others take the form of fish. Despite how different they are to humans and Gigans, they too are a part of the kingdom's walks of life".

"Oh, I see" Scythana replied, her eyes looking at Adam in the rear-view mirror. A bit of silence, as Adam continued driving to their destination.

"Are my friends on their way back home?" Scythana said, wanting to keep the conversation going.

"Yes, I've already had my men send them on their way to Maplecrest".

"And…Cerebella?"

"We've taken her to New Meridian Hospital. She'll recover there during the weekends

"That's good…" she looked down as if remembering how badly injured she was.

"Don't worry, they've got the best doctors there. I'm sure they'll patch her up just fine. Why? You worried about her?"

Clearly, Scythana was worried. This girl she just met on her first day was already lying in the hospital. She wondered if she had intervened when she was kidnapped, none of it would have happened. She didn't realize her lamenting left Adam without an answer.

"Oh…uh, yeah. I mean…I am worried. It's just that…"

She became silent, struggling to give a coherent answer.

"It's that, I think she likes me, you know? And my other friends too. I thought they'd be worried about a Gigan in their class, but they didn't hesitate to chat up and make friends with me". A smile began forming on her lips.

"It…feels nice, you know?"

Adam did not give a reply, yet he simply smiled.

"We're almost there" he said, turning the car to the right. "Get your bag ready".

* * *

"Filia, you're home! We were so worried!"

Filia arrived at her house in Maplecrest, a bit tired from the events of the evening but still perky and cheerful as she hugged her mother, Amelia.

"Where have you been my dear? Going out with friends?" she asked, holding her daughter's shoulders.

Filia remembered not to reveal what had happened, heeding Adam's words. "Yeah, I went out with some friends in the city!" she said, smiling as she did not want to worry her mother.

"Is that so?" she looked up at Samson, her expression going from cheerful to stern. "Did you take her to any…restrictive places, Samson?"

Samson sighs. He knew Amelia would start asking him the tougher questions about Filia. "Nope, Ms. Adams" Samson said, losing his "sardonic" edge to appear polite. "Just the shopping mall". Filia always found it funny when Samson had to act polite, especially around her mom.

"You could've just called me first Filia! We were so worried you didn't come back in the afternoon!" Amelia replied further. She was already wearing her blue nightgown.

"Oh, hey kid, you're back!" a rougher, yet also softer voice called out from the back. From the stairs, a man walked down, wearing his t shirt and cotton pants, like a person already settling in for the evening.

"Dad!" Filia shouted as she went ahead and hugged her father.

"Samson, you bringing her around New Meridian? You didn't bring her to any bars or anything?" he said. In the family, he and Samson were the ones with the snarkier sense of conversation.

Samson only grinned, "Naw Marcus. You know girls. Went out with her friends to the shopping mall!" he said with a gleaming expression only his mouth and teeth could form.

A bark came from the back. Suddenly, out came a dog, a Golden Retriever, rushing towards Filia to lick her knee. "Hey doggie! I'm back!" Filia said, kneeling down to let the dog lick her face. Samson joined in too.

"Who's a good doggie!" he said, brushing and patting his head with one of his tendrils. Mr. and Mrs. Adams laughed at the sight. Together with Samson, they make a bright and happy family. Samson only just came into the folds of the family last year, and yet they already considered him a member.

"Alright, enough you three. Let's eat dinner. I've made your favourite, Filia!" Amelia said, walking to the kitchen.

"Oh boy, is it brisket?" Filia excitedly asked, following her.

"I'm taking the scraps!" Samson snarked.

"Oh, you're not taking all the scraps, Samson!" Marcus shouted back.

"Woof!" the dog woofed.

* * *

"I'm home!"

The house was dark, save for a light above the living room and television.

"Carol? Is that you?" a female voice shouted.

Footsteps came from the living room. A woman greeted Carol at the front door. She was wearing a black casual T-shirt and short pants. Her light blue hair was already tied into a sharp ponytail behind her head.

"Where've you been? I was worried sick" the woman said. It looked like she was about to get angry at her, arms already resting on her hips. Still, it was justified; she may have thought Carol went somewhere else after school.

"Oh…I went to New Meridian with Filia. We hung out there with a few friends" Carol replied. She was worried that she might shout at her.

"Oh, I see. Well, you could have told me. Otherwise I'd give you more money than just for the cafeteria. And I'd know where you've been too."

"I'm sorry…"

The woman walked towards her and hugged her. "It's alright, don't worry. I'm not angry about it really" she said. She turned her gaze into her eyes. Carol could see her red irises illuminating her eyes in the dark, the other was covered in a bandage.

"I'm happy that you're hanging out with friends more" she continued.

"Really?" Carol said. Her expression glowed at that moment. The woman nodded as she smiled.

"Come, let's have dinner. I've made ramen" she said.

"Ramen?"

"Actual Japanese ramen. Not the instant crap this time"

"Wow! Thanks Valentine!"

The woman, Valentine, turned to smile at Carol. Her lips had a scar across both her upper and bottom lips on the left.

"Anytime!" she said.

* * *

Scythana had already settled into her new home at New Meridian.

Her house was rented out in an apartment, GreenVille Housings, pretty much a few blocks away from school. Adam already told her how to get to and from school by the bus just in front of her apartment. He left her with some amenities, like money and clothes, just before he left her alone in her house.

It was a nice apartment. The tiles and flooring looked modern in white, the living room has a table for studying, a television, the house also had high-speed Internet access, a kitchen, and a single sized bedroom. All for herself. She did feel like it was living easy, but she was grateful for the assistance from Adam's authorities.

Still, she felt tired from today's events. Already on her first day she fought a gang and even had to "break" her limits just to save a friend she barely even met. In her heart, she was still worried sick for her, having to take Adam's words that she'll recover from her injuries. She knew that she might have to "go berserk" during her stay here.

But not this early, she thought.

It was time for her to settle in early for tonight. The bathroom in her bedroom was fully equipped with a hot shower. She felt like she could use one, the fight left her dirtied and exhausted.

She stripped herself bare and let water flow from the hot tap onto her. It was soothing, relaxing her as she continued bathing. She closed her to let her thoughts relax and take in the moment.

After she was done, she dried herself with a towel and wore a white sleeveless shirt and black short pants. She had turned the lights off in the living room beforehand, so she immediately crashed herself on her bed. It was single-sized bed, suited to her larger frame. It was soft and comfy, already as she lied down on it she felt comfortable and "engaged" in its softness.

The day's events left her feeling excited, yet cautious for what's to come. Her friends were simply not normal, yet she's still friends with them all the same. What other excitement does the people and city of this kingdom will bring her, she thought. She wanted to explore more of the city with her friends, show her around more places like around New Meridian, Canopolis and many other exciting places.

And maybe bring her to shop for new clothes too.

Already her eyes felt heavy. She turned off the lights in her bedroom, leaving the nightlight by her bed and closed her eyes, slowly lulling herself to sleep in the quiet night of New Meridian…

* * *

The sound of rumbling machines and whirring motors filled the halls of the laboratory. It was already dark, save for the lights of computers, still operational to run the systems powering the lab. From above, a circular door opened, before a small, flying drone enters the lab. It was a tiny drone, equipped with a camera and a small anti-gravity propulsion system to keep itself afloat.

It descended from the circular door as it closed itself. Slowly, it descended towards the main computer terminal in the room, before inserting its lower half into a port near the monitor. The monitor lit up, with its surrounding monitors turning on to show statistical data. Pictures began showing up on the main monitor. A picture of a vial, a molecular structure.

A picture of a crocodile in a jacket holding a vial.

Pictures of a fight between the crocodile, now large and monstrous and a girl half his size.

A picture of the same crocodile being taken away by the authorities.

"FIELD OBSERVATION PROVIDES RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS OF SAMPLE T-001 USED BY SUBJECT 'RIP CAIMAN'" The terminal voiced out in a robotic voice.

"SAMPLE IMPROVED SUBJECT'S RATE OF SUCCESS BY 40%. HOWEVER, SUBJECT EXPERIENCED SEVERAL FLAWS IN THE SAMPLE, SUCH AS GRADUAL LOSS OF INTELLIGENCE, MUSCLE FATIGUE FOR USAGE OF DURATION, AND LASTLY EXHAUSTION FROM OVERUSE"

"It could use…improvements"

A deeper, yet synthetic voice called out in response to the data on the screen. He stood in front of the terminal as he observed the pictures and footage of the fight in North Meridian. He scrutinized every detail of the data and footage, before noticing the opponent fighting Rip.

"Zoom in on the photo".

It was a photograph of the girl after him, standing in front of an unconscious Rip as he turned back into his original self. He noted the black and white striped horn.

"A Gigan. Here?" he expressed. He was mildly shocked, yet he took note of it. His red eyes lit up as he processed the information into his brain cortex.

"WHAT IS YOUR NEXT DECISION, DR. ERIK?" the computer asked the question.

"Rework the molecular structure of the sample. Then we shall begin distributing them among the population, discreetly" he said. He turned to walk away from the computer.

"And AXON" the mechanical scientist stopped in his tracks to address the computer. "Calling me by my old name would remind me of my feeble life as a human. I am beyond that now."

He turned to face the large computer monitor. The light from the monitor illuminated his form. He wore a dark brown trench coat, yet his hands were metal, fingers tipped in sharp needles, syringes for analytical use. His robot head wore a serious expression, his eyes and mouth slanted downward to emphasize a stern and serious appearance. On top of his head, "crowned" with spikes surrounding its circumference, was a reinforced glass dome, revealing a brain inside, immersed in fluids keeping it alive as it connected to it's mechanical body.

"From now on, I am to be called…"

He raised his right hand and gripped it into a fist. Suddenly, a ball of purple energy emanated and covered his hand. A symbol of his superiority, shown to merely a computer.

"Brain Drain. A name divorced of humanity, only purpose and function. As all things should be…" The ball of energy dissipated as he ungripped his hand.

"STANDING BY…"

A moment of silence…

"DULY NOTED, DR. BRAIN DRAIN"

Brain Drain nodded as he walked away from the computer. Today was the first step in his grand plan. He will ensure that the Canopy Kingdom will face the consequences of their error, and he will show them the true weakness humanity and the superiority of machine. The pain from his past still lingered in him, and like fuel the fire burned it as the motivation for his upcoming plot. He will have his revenge. On the Canopy Kingdom, then the rest of humanity…

His human mind, yet machine fist of iron will not rest until it is done…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of my first Skullgirls story. What are your thoughts, and what would you like to see for the future?

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first of a proposed series. I'll work on this in my free time. Leave a comment below and I'll read it!


End file.
